Alghero is an Italian city of 43,831 inhabitants, constituting the metropolitan network of Northern Sardinia in the province of Sassari, in Sardinia. It is also known as the Sardinian Barceloneta, or “little Barcelona”: the city has in fact preserved the use of Catalan, of which it is a linguistic island and 22.4% of its inhabitants speak it in the Alghero variant, recognized by the Italian Republic and Sardinia Region as a minority language. In Alghero there is also an institutional seat of a delegation from the Generalitat de Catalunya, the regional government of Catalonia.
The city, one of the main ones in Sardinia and fifth in the region by number of inhabitants, is one of the access gates to the island, thanks to the airport located near Fertilia. It is the capital of the Riviera del Corallo, a name that derives from the fact that in the waters of its bay there is the largest amount of the precious red coral. It has a strong tourist vocation and is one of the main destinations on the island; in 2012 it was the 10th Italian city most visited by foreign tourists.
Alghero is the third university city in Sardinia after Sassari and Cagliari, with the headquarters of the Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning of the University of Sassari.
